Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS IN JAPAN 1971 > CHAPTER 3 (1)

CHAPTER SUFFICIENCY OF TEACHING STAFFAND PROVISION OF SCHOOL FACILITIES

For children of compulsory school age who have difficulty in attending school due to economic reasons, the Japanese national government has taken various measures to encourage their attendance under the provisions of the Daily Life Protection Law, the School Education Law, the Law Concerning the National Treasury's Share in the, Encouragement of School Attendance for Pupils Having Financial Difficulties, and others.

To children from needy or semi-needy families as defined by the Daily Life Protection Law, assistance is offered to cover expenses for school supplies, transportation to school, goods required to attend school, school lunches. School excursions, medical treatment, school security insurance and others. To handicapped children no special schools, various assistance is offered to encourage them to attend school. Moreover, the policies for children's welfare under the Child Welfare Law and other ordinances arc also devised to encourage children of school age to attend school. For instance, to tubercular pupils, in addition to supplying goods required for learning and medical treatment, special assistance is offered to help them attend school.

With the intention of preserving the health of students who work during the day and study in evening part-time upper secondary schools and of assisting them in their school attendance, a part of their expense for supper is subsidized from the national budget.

Few major countries other than Japan assist pupils directly so as to encourage the school attendance of school age children. However, the study of their systems for encouragement of school attendance must be seen in connection with their whole social welfare policies.

In the United States, schools usually provide such school items as crayons, notebooks and so forth. For transportation, school buses arc used, and because the state governments or other agencies offer subsidies to purchase the buses, parents scarcely bear any direct expense. In consequence a system such as Japan's in which assistance is given directly to pupils hardly exists in the United States.

In England and Wales, for pupils having difficulties in regard to transportation to school, dormitories arc available and if their parents cannot afford it, the local education authorities bear the expense for them.

In France, as one step in the encouragement of school attendance, a system exists called "La Caisse des Ecoles" (School Funds), by which the national government gives financial assistance to needy children through municipalities. This system was launched in 1867 for the purpose of encouraging the children of poorer families to attend school, but later it was expanded to cover the children of average families lock. In accord with the provisions of the 1951 Law for Subsidies to Families Having School' Children, the subsidy from the state was largely increased.